


Insignia

by Seagoatink



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Season 2 spoilers, She/her for Pidge, kind of
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-10
Updated: 2017-04-10
Packaged: 2018-10-17 05:51:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,529
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10587762
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Seagoatink/pseuds/Seagoatink
Summary: “Pidge,” Keith started, “I’m sorry I upset you earlier.”“That’s nice,” Pidge grumbled, doing her best not to roll her eyes at him behind her glasses.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Special thanks to my beta, Beep, my first official beta!

Hunk had spent most of the day in the kitchen with Pidge who sat quietly and watched. Usually, she worked on a personal project, or research, or upgrades. In the last few weeks, her appetite dwindled as a vortex of depression and anxiety settled in her stomach. The two feelings gnawed at any will to eat.

Everyone on the castle ship knew it was a problem, but Hunk was confident he could help Pidge regain her appetite. So he slaved away in the kitchen, talking to Pidge as he did so. They discussed small projects, like how Pidge adapted camouflage to her lion by reverse engineering the walls in the training room. Hunk would return with any upgrades he made to the hardware of his lion.

He knew at the heart of the problem, Pidge sorely missed her family. Specifically, she missed her brother and father. More than anything, she wanted to ensure their safety, which was not at all possible unless they were no longer Galra prisoners. Even then, Pidge’s mind surely would wander to knowing the mental damage done over the past year of being prisoners of the Galra empire. One look at Shiro could tell anyone that it was rough to say the least.

That worried Pidge even more.

Lance sauntered into the kitchen, practically sparkling after his skincare routine. Not a thing could daze him, until Hunk presented several lovely dishes for Pidge to devour. “Pidge, my buddy, my pal, you really ought to use a mud mask, you know?” He chided as he sat down next to her with a self-assured grin on his face.

“No thanks,” Pidge replied simply.

Then Hunk boiled down what each dish was for Pidge, knowing if smell alone did not have her drooling, the composition would. “I wanna put mud on my face,” Hunk replied to Lance’s offer.

As soon as she took the first bite, she was in love. It took no time at all for her to stuff her face with everything in the bowl and on the table. “Hunk!” She exclaimed in between bites, but could not manage to say more. So she threw up a thumbs up and continued to scarf down the plates Hunk prepared for her.

“After Pidge is done we can all put mud on our faces,” Lance offered, despite Pidge’s refusal. “Rejuvenating mud.”

They were too busy talking about mud to realize Keith had walked in. “I see someone’s finally eating away their feelings,” he muttered.

Everyone in the room stopped what they were doing and slowly turned to face Keith, reminding him somewhat of horror films like _The Ring_. A clump of half chewed food fell from Pidge’s mouth and onto the table. The day had been going so well up until that point. In part because Pidge was eating, but also because they were in a safe zone where Galra ships could not find them. At least for the time being.

But Pidge could feel her stomach gurgle and the void fill her stomach once again. Even the last spoonful she had swallowed was not going down as easy as it was a moment ago. “I’m gonna go work on some algorithms,” she said as she left the table and numerous dishes behind her. 

“Pidge…” Hunk mumbled, disheartened after spending so much time trying to help her feel better. Then she walked out the door and he ran for her. “Pidge, wait! Please!” Before crossing the threshold into the hallway he turned back to face Keith. “You know what you did,” he told him scornfully. Hunk returned his gaze to the hallway, but Pidge had either turned a corner or picked up her pace and booked it. “Great,” he sighed aloud.

The first place he checked for Pidge was her room, but it was empty outside of her gadgets and projects. Then Hunk went searching for her in the tech lab. Finally, he resolved to check the Green Lion’s hangar.

“Pidge!” Hunk called out. He could feel their paladin bond and knew she was in the room. It was most likely that she was sitting in Green’s cockpit, finding solace with her lion. “I know you’re in there,” said Hunk as he approached the lion. “Listen, I know you probably don’t want to talk right now. Or want company either… But, if you do want company or to talk later, I’ll probably be with Yellow. I wanted to let you know I hope you feel better. We’re your friends and we care about you.”

The green lion laid down and opened her mouth. She was purring contently, as if beckoning him to join Pidge in the cockpit.

“So you wouldn’t mind company?” Hunk asked with a hint of uncertainty in his voice. The lion purred again. In the back of his mind he felt a touch of warmth, which he chalked up to be his bond with Pidge. Without further hesitation, he joined Pidge in Green. “Pidge?” He asked, only to be greeted with a tight hug around his torso. 

“I’m sorry, I really want to eat. You’re food is great, but I-”

At first he was worried, he still was. But the expression of shock fell from his face as he looked down at her. A small smile formed on his face. He was concerned for her health, but she thought she hurt his feelings. Hunk had to admit, he was a little upset at first, but he knew how hard it was to eat when worried tied knots in one’s stomach. “It’s alright, Pidge.”

Pidge sighed and sat down in her chair. “Please don’t blame Keith either. I mean, we’re all having a hard time out here…”

 _Out here in space_ , is what she meant, _where home is on the opposite side of the galaxy_. Hunk knew. The words did not need to be said though. He and Pidge were usually on the same wavelength about most things. That was when she actually told him what she was up to on her projects. If she did not explain, then he had the tendency to try and close the gap by prying into what was probably none of his business anyway. It was just as likely that he was not interested in what she was working on.

He pulled her into a tight hug and sighed. “Yeah, I know.”

 

It came as a relief when, instead of heckling Keith, Lance left the room. Just as soon as a breath of relief left his body, Shiro walked in and Keith sucked his breath back in. Keith may not have held a strong enough bond with Lance to know what he was thinking, but he knew Shiro put a lot more time and effort into getting to know everyone.

There was not a trace of doubt in his mind that Shiro knew something was up.

“I thought Hunk and Pidge would be in here working on her appetite,” Shiro said. If he knew what was up, he was not letting on.

Moments in silence passed between the two of them before Keith finally sighed, giving into the pressure and the silence. “Yeah, they were,” he confessed, and motioned with an open palm to the numerous plates set out across the table. “I said the wrong thing and Pidge… lost her appetite.”

Instead of responding, Shiro refused to say anything, which Keith decided was worse. As strange as it was, Shiro’s silence held a lot more judgement and knowing than Lance’s. Even though Lance was the idiotic blabbermouth that he was.

He hung his head low at the table as Shiro grabbed a spork. There was no way he was going to let Hunk’s good cooking go to waste. Someone had to appreciate it, and Shiro happened to be hungry anyway. “Did Hunk say anything?”

“ _You know what you did_ ,” quoted Keith. Another sigh left his lips in a puff. “He’s not wrong either.”

“Then you know you shouldn’t have said it, whatever it is that you said,” Shiro said, refusing to let the mood ruin whatever it was Hunk called the dish he was eating. “But you still have to apologize.”

Keith did not meet the other paladin’s eyes and instead continued to stare down at his hands which splayed across the cool metallic surface of the table. Shiro was right. He needed to apologize. To Pidge. To Hunk. The very thought was alarming. Their ever-fearless leader was not prying into why Keith decided to be snarky, but Hunk or Pidge would do some digging.

Maybe that was for the better.

Keeping the blade under his pillow a secret was going to eat him alive.

 

After talking with Hunk in the Green Lion, Pidge did a quick run around the castle. She had several projects up and running on different systems and in different areas. A few had already been taken care of from her lion’s hangar. The rest were in her room, on the bridge, and in the tech lab.

It had been some time since she last ate. Her stomach gurgled and churned, reminding her of the fact. But she still lacked appetite completely. The mere thought of food made her feel nauseous. Someone had probably cleaned up the food Hunk made anyway, so Pidge avoided the kitchen.

She was crunched on time before leaving the hangar. Checking on her numerous projects, scans, and algorithms only made her late. That was the point though. Pidge wanted to avoid the training area as much as possible. But she could not if they wanted to become a better team.

Lance would likely try and start something. Then he and Keith would go at it. Shiro would use his leader voice and tell them all to knock it off and work as a team. He would want to get to the core of the problem. Then all eyes would be on her and on Keith. She would not even get the chance to talk to him about the real problem if that happened.

Pidge was not at all fond of the idea.

Caught in her own worries, it was not until she reached the training room that she realized she forgot to put on her paladin armor. There was no avoiding training now, Pidge decided. She had made it to the doors at long last, the least she could do was be less late and let everyone know she forgot her armor. If it was important enough, Shiro would tell her to go grab it.

She stepped through the doors. Instead of finding everyone as she expected to, she found only Lance. He was dressed casually, not in his paladin suit, but in shorts and a tank top. “Hey Pidge, looks like you had the same idea as me!” He called out from halfway across the room. He was stretching his arms.

To not see Keith in the training room was just as relieving as it was nerve wracking. Pidge’s stomach lurched. Still, she moved forward to join Lance at the center of the room and join him in stretches. “Where is everyone?” She found herself asking as she pulled off her sweater to reveal a dark tank top underneath. Pidge tossed the garment to the side and crossed her arm over her chest, holding it firmly in place with her other arm.

“Keith went to go talk to Hunk. Shiro’s… doing whatever he does I guess. I honestly expected him to be here by now,” Lance said. They switched arms in unison after holding for a good ten seconds. “So we could do yoga…” He trailed off but kept his eyes trained on Pidge, queuing her in that he was up to something. “Or we could practice that duo routine I was telling you about.”

Back at the Garrison, their training exercises were limited, especially those focused around team work. Out in space, on the castleship, everything was different. They made up their own rules on how they thought they would work best. After things settled down and the ship was finally in the stars, Lance thought that maybe a little choreography and rhythm might help him work better with everyone else.

Pidge shrugged her shoulders. Lance took it as their next warm up and started rolling his shoulders to loosen them up. She followed suit. “It couldn’t hurt,” she said.

When the doors to the training room did finally open, Pidge and Lance both had a leg over the other’s shoulder to extend their splits. Hunk winced at the sight. “That looks painful, guys,” he said with a squeak in his voice.

Keith and Shiro appeared from behind him. All three wore their paladin armor. “It’s not that difficult,” Keith muttered with a huff before Shiro shot an eyebrow up and glanced in his direction.

The two removed their ankles from the other’s shoulder and stood. “Everyone was late but me for once,” exclaimed Lance with pride as he set his hands on his hips and stared off into the distance.

“So you were late too, Pidge?” Shiro asked, turning his attention to the green paladin.

Pidge cleared her throat and nodded. “Yeah, I mean the algorithms won’t set themselves. I was working on meshing possible trouble areas with planets and systems that have already sent out distress beacons over the last 10 centuries to see if I could-”

“I think they get it, Pidge,” Lance interrupted, placing a hand on her shoulder with an affectionate pat. “You were late. No shame in that!” Again, he was back in his own head, gloating to himself about being the only one on time.

She rolled her eyes at Lance and picked her weird turtle neck up off the floor. Then she shook it off and tied the arms around her waist. “I bet you were still late,” Pidge chuckled, flashing him a toothy grin.

Shiro glanced at Keith again and nodded his head toward Pidge, signalling to him that it was now or never.

“Pidge,” Keith started, “I’m sorry I upset you earlier.”

“That’s nice,” Pidge grumbled, doing her best not to roll her eyes at him behind her glasses.

He talked to Shiro and Hunk about what to say. He had even apologized to Hunk for undoing a lot of his effort. But what Keith had not expected was for Pidge to dismiss him completely. It is his fault, he admitted to himself. Pidge was upset at him because of what he said. But he could not understand why she was being so stubborn right now. So when he opened his mouth, he tried not to shout. “What’s your problem?!” He demanded loudly, even though he did his best to keep his volume reasonable.

“I bet you’re just apologizing because Shiro and Hunk told you to!” Pidge yelled back, her hands forming fists at her sides. Her face was turning red. _And you’re hiding something,_ she added through their paladin bond. The best she could do was hope that she did not project the words to any of the other paladins.

Keith’s eyes widened, but Pidge could not be certain he understood the images she sent through his head.

Lance sighed dramatically and folded his arms over his chest. “Great! Now we’re going to have to loosen up again!” He whined.

“You didn’t even give him a chance, Pidge,” Shiro interjected as he stepped forward. “That’s not fair and that’s not how-”

“It’s fine, Shiro,” Keith said, cutting off the black paladin, before turning and leaving the training area.

Pidge was quick to follow with determination in her eyes, but Shiro stopped her for a moment by placing a hand on her shoulder. “Try and give him a chance, Pidge,” he said in a low, but stern voice. His concern was showing through. He was not just worried about forming Voltron, he was worried about working as a team. 

“I wasn’t exactly planning on beating him up and throwing him out the airlock, Shiro,” Pidge deadpanned as she ducked away from his hand and hurried out of the training room.

Her words failed to keep him from worrying.

An image of Pidge watching Keith slam his hands on the door of the airlock appeared in her mind as Lance threw a hand up to scratch the back of his head.

 

The door to Keith’s room was unlocked and Pidge was not surprised when she approached. The door opened to show Keith sitting on his bed, looking down and away. “Of all the things to see when we form Voltron…”

Images flashed between the both of them over the bond. They were hazy and staticy and dim from poor connection, but Pidge sat down at his desk and focused on broadcasting the images into his mind just a little harder. Some of them were Shiro’s flashbacks he had while they formed Voltron. Others were directly from Keith’s mind after seeing how he escaped from his testing cell. Pidge stopped to take a breath. Then she raised her eyes to look up at him.

He understood her intent and swallowed hard. The water was murky and Keith had no idea how well this would go over with anyone. But Pidge made it clear she was not going to out him or his secret in front of anyone else.

“I know you’re not here to hurt anyone, Keith,” Pidge said in a hushed tone, even though the door was sealed and no one other than Keith could hear her. “But if you’re going to go off on me, I feel like I at least deserve to know what’s bothering you and why.”

“Yeah, I got that,” replied Keith. He took a deep breath through his nose, straightening his posture as he did so, before releasing the air slowly through his mouth. His hand slipped under his pillow and he pulled out a blade with cloth wrapped loosely around its guard. 

Pidge held her hand out and Keith handed it over. Even though she recognized it from the glimpses she caught while forming Voltron, she pulled the cloth away. The insignia was not anything human, something else Pidge already knew. It was likely a Galra insignia, which was unsettling and drew too many questions to focus on any one specifically.

“I don’t recognize the symbol outside of the bond,” Pidge muttered, turning the blade over in her hand. “Let’s go to my room, I have some tools to scan and look for the symbol and see if the computer can’t figure out the metals.”

He did not even have time to process what Pidge said, because she walked straight out the door and into the hallway. He had been too busy readying himself for the question “When did you get this?” or “Where did this come from?”

By the time he made it into the hallway, that was fortunately clear of the other paladins, Pidge was already crossing the threshold into her room. Keith quickly skittered across the floor to clear the gap and join her. Having had the dagger all his life without any questions being answered, he knew Pidge was not going to get results overnight. Dammit, he wanted answers.

“Pidge,” said Keith as the door closes behind him.

She had already seated herself at her desk and was scanning the blade. “As far as I can tell so far, it’s made out of a rare metal called _luxite_ ,” Pidge in formed him. “Anything else will probably have to wait at least several days,” she added with a sigh before wrapping up the guard again. She held the blade in her hand and offered the handle back to him.

“I was going to ask what was it that you were doing with Lance?” He asked as he retrieved his knife from Pidge. 

Pidge stared up at him, dumbstruck by the question. “Uh, why don’t you put that back first so I can get into my armor and we can talk about it on the way back to training?” She offered with a sigh. “And don’t worry, I’m not gonna tell anyone about this.”

Keith nodded and turned to leave. He felt the weight of the day lift from his shoulders. 

When they met back in the hall, Pidge scurried up to him. “Lance and I dance together. He’s really into pop culture and likes to do choreography in his spare time. I know it sounds silly, but it makes him a lot easier to work with. Honestly, I feel like our bond has gotten a lot stronger. Not to mention it’s a lot easier to get a feel for what he’s doing. Oh! And afterwards he tends to take a little more consideration to-”

“Do you do gymnastics?” Keith asked.

Pidge nodded in response. “Yeah, but I don’t see how that’s relevant.”

“I got into it hoping it’d help me in combat,” he admitted. Pidge glanced up at him, but he refused to make eye contact. His cheeks were tinged red with embarrassment. “Do you want to practice sometime - to help strengthen our bond?”

“Are you as flexible as Lance?” Pidge asked as a devilish grin grew on her face.


End file.
